The present invention relates to archery equipment, and more particularly to a stabilizer for an archery bow that is configured to selectively articulate at a particular location along its length for precise weight distribution and balance.
When an arrow is shot from an archery bow, a variety of translational and rotational movements occur around the location where an archer grips the archery bow, that is, the archery bow grip. These movements can affect the accuracy and the range of the arrow shot from the bow. Generally, movements about the gripping location are divided into three different movements, namely, pitch, roll and yaw. Pitch occurs when the bow moves up or down from the perspective of an archer drawing or holding the bow. Roll occurs when the bow rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise, while in the archer's hand, from the point of view of the archer drawing the bow. Yaw generally relates to hand torque, where the bow has a tendency to wobble from side-to-side, or left-to-right, about the bow grip from the perspective of an archer drawing or holding the bow.
A variety of archery bow stabilizers are available which attempt to counter pitch, roll and yaw movement. Generally, these stabilizers are weighted and project forwardly from the riser of the bow. Many of these stabilizers are in the form of a cylindrical weighted rod that projects forwardly several inches from the riser.
Some stabilizer accessories offer variability in weight distribution. For example, there are some stabilizer mounts that project forward from a riser and include an elbow included right in the mount. A weighted stabilizer is threaded into the stabilizer mount. While the elbow of the mount enables the weighted stabilizer to be angled up or down, the majority of weight of the stabilizer remains forward of the riser. For those archers who desire weight elsewhere, the elbow is of little use.
There also are some stabilizer mounts that include multiple elbows located forward of the riser in the mount itself. Again, this forward mounting can provide some custom weight distribution, but it is limited when it comes to moving mass rearward of the riser.
While there are a variety of stabilizers on the market that provide specialized balancing and counter balancing of bows, there remains room for improvement for an all-purpose archery bow stabilizer that reduces or eliminates external asymmetric forces which can induce torque or instability in an archery bow.